Letters: No place for bigotry in GOP leadership

Republican National Committee member Dave Agema should immediately resign. If he won't, state and national Republican Party leaders must remove him.

I received Agema's recent post on Facebook with its bizarre laundry list of purported facts and statistics on homosexuals. Most absurdly, it also stated that gays and lesbians account for more than 50% of murders in major cities.

Now, I consider myself an expert in the criminal justice field. I received my police training at the Oakland and Detroit police academies, I have a bachelor of science degree with honors in criminal justice, and I have a law degree. I have read thousands of crime studies and reviewed reams of FBI and State Police crime statistics. Never have I read one that states what Agema claimed.

I respect other people's deeply held views, grounded in faith and religion, on what are fundamentally personal issues, but marriage or gays aren't the real issues here.

The real issue is Agema's bigotry.

Agema's vitriol hurts social conservatives and turns off moderates -- the type of voters who are desperately needed within the GOP if the party is to win nationally.

Agema must be condemned. There can be no room in the Republican tent for him.

Jerry Vorva

Former Republican member of the state House Plymouth

Fabricated statistics

Just this past week, Michigan's committeeman to the Republican National Committee, Dave Agema, revealed his and the GOP's addictive homophobia again. Agema listed several outrageous and fabricated statistics alleging that gays had between 20 and 106 partners a year, that 50% of all suicides can be attributed to gays, and that gays account for half the murders in large cities.

Agema just spent $8 million for minority outreach, including the LGBT community. While the RNC is trying to recruit gays, Agema, a major Michigan GOP spokesperson, is undermining these efforts with false statistics.

Perhaps Agema did not get the memo from the RNC concerning spending millions on minority conversion to the GOP.

Gerald Maxey

Farmington Hills

Dishonorable stand

A recent statement from Dave Agema said: "I didn't write this ("Frank Joseph, MD's) piece; however I do think that it is relevant for the discussion regarding gay marriage that is happening across the country right now. ... I didn't write these words; I simply posted them."

In other words, "I don't want to take responsibility for the lies the piece contains, but I want you to believe them anyway."

You have no honor, Mr. Agema, and you are abusing both your position and the public trust. Resign.

Andrea Claassen

Bruce

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Letters: No place for bigotry in GOP leadership

Republican National Committee member Dave Agema should immediately resign. If he won't, state and national Republican Party leaders must remove him. I received Agema's recent post on Facebook with